Page 101 of Hot & Heavy

"… I had a two-fold purpose."

You've got my attention, baby. This oughta be good.

"I wanted to change your mind about helping me raise an army…"

I am sick to my eyeballs of hearing about this fictional, never-gonna-happen army of hers.

"… but I also tried to seduce you just because…"

I'd like to think… but no, you never can predict what she'll come out with next.

"… because you make me all fluttery all the time."

A slow smile crept onto his mouth, and he didn't even try to stop it. "That's a good thing, Maddie. Why do you look so sad?"

She sat up. Since he was still hunkered down, they were eye to eye. "You are a military man. How important is honor to you?"

Huh? We were talking about sex. "Very important. Why?"

"Because it is equally important to me. If I made love to you again, knowing how little regard you have for my quest, then I would be without honor."

That is the most fantastic bit of female illogic I have ever heard. "I don't see it that way."

"I know you do not," she said sadly.

Now he was growing angry because, frankly, he was beginning to understand that he wasn't getting any tonight. "How much honor is there in trying to seduce me to your way of thinking?"

She seemed to actually ponder his argument, then shook her head. "If your refusal to help me was a point of honor, then it would be dishonorable of me to try to seduce you. But since your refusal is based on mere muleheadedness and lack of trust and belief in me"—she shrugged—"my method was fair."

He threw his hands up in disgust. "You are crazy. That's it. No more begging. There are other fish in the sea."

Walking away from her, he thought he heard a stifled sob, but he was probably mistaken. Talk about muleheadedness… she took the prize there.

Ian had never been so twisted out of shape by a woman before… not even by Jennifer when she left. In fact, there had been a bit of relief when she'd skipped out on him; he'd already begun to suspect his feelings for her weren't that deep. It was probably why she'd cheated on him. But now, if he didn't know better… no, it wasn't possible… but what if…

Holy hell, I am in bigger trouble than I thought.

I have fallen in love with a looneybird.

Heartbreak Hotel… uh, Home…

Madrene stood under the hot shower for a long time that night.

She was crying and could not stop. She'd always known that if she started to let the tears escape, there would be a flood. And that was just what was happening.

She cried for the loss of Norstead and the death of so many of her people. She wept for the women who had been raped by Steinolf's men. She sobbed aloud when she pictured herself in the longship departing from the Norselands. She moaned the death of all her family members. There were tears, too, for the two long years in Arab lands, always, always determined that she would go back one day and unseat Steinolf.

She even threw in her anguish over being barren.

But mostly, she cried for Ian because she truly wanted him to believe in her. Unrealistically, she had half expected him to be so enthralled with her that he would acquiesce.

I love him, she admitted to herself. For the first time in my life, I have fallen in love. And it cannot be. It cannot be.

With her forehead pressed against the shower tiles, with the hot water turning tepid, she sobbed her heart out where no one could see or hear her. It would be the last time she allowed herself the female weakness of tears, but for now she just let go of all her grief.

So engrossed was she that she didn't hear the door open.

Ian had stepped into the shower, wearing a pair of his running shorts. He held her from behind, his arms wrapped around her middle, his chin resting on her shoulder. "Shhhh, don't cry, sweetie. Everything will turn out all right. I promise it will. Please don't cry."